After shooting Mance Rayder’s as mercy-killing, instead of letting him undergo the slow agony of being burnt alive, Jon Snow was advised by Stannis Baratheon: “Show too much kindness, people won’t fear you. And if they don’t fear you, they won’t follow you.”[1] This thought-pattern has been adopted as justification for cruelty and violence in people called “iron-handed leaders”. Some euphemists choose to refer to them as BENEVOLENT TYRANTS who are able to do what is necessary for peace. Recently, some Nigerian political analysts suggest that Nigeria requires more “iron-handed leaders” to exit corruption and experience progress.
Human beings love themselves and possess instincts of self-preservation for struggling and surviving in different circumstances. They struggle with other living and non-living beings to obtain and secure resources for survival and self-actualization. Despite the survival instincts, they are rational and social animals who continually seek happiness[2] in the human society. Thus, instead of continuously fighting, they relate with others to develop their creative potentials for happiness in the society. In this social relationship, they choose leaders who direct the modes of collaboration in the society for harmonious creativity and progress.[3]
These leaders are given the power to use necessary force in the administration for peace and progress. This power to use force becomes necessary for protection against invaders and control of necessary activities in the society. It is also necessary to contain the excesses of some misguided elements within the society. If the leaders are not strong enough, they may not protect the society from invaders, nor control the stubborn citizens. So, societies may need iron-handed leaders for peace and progress.
Iron handed leaders are seen as those who apply enough force in suppressing, scaring and controlling ‘stubborn’ citizens. This use of force is believed to elicit obedience from everybody, by threat of pain or death. Such leaders in history controlled their states by torturing, jailing or executing ‘stubborn’ subjects or their relatives. The iron-handed leaders subdue all those that could hinder their ideas and efforts for speedy development.
With the level of indiscipline, corruption, agitations and crimes in Nigeria, it may be easier to revive Nigeria through iron-handed leaders for the following reasons:
- The wicked and dangerous people, and all criminals will be subdued.
- All the agitators and will be pounded into obedience by force.
- The remaining people will fear them and submit to them.
- Then there will be no more agitations and crimes, only peace.
On the contrary, the use of violence by iron-handed leaders have not yielded long-lasting peace and progress in history, as it often happens that:
- The subdued people eventually revolt, unless they are completely annihilated.
- The annihilation of a people sets a precedence that would be repaid to the aggressor by other people, foreigners, other citizens or even close relatives.
- The material and emotional cost of sustaining violence in a society is high.
- The use of excess violence in administration crushes initiative which flows from free minds.
- The emotion of fear replaces the emotion of love and true commitment to the society
- The citizens nurse anger in their hearts, waiting for opportunity to revenge.
Nobody is born wicked, people pursue happiness through different means according to their personal thoughts or social influences. If they are properly influenced and educated to seek happiness through social virtues, they will willingly choose them. If citizens are treated justly, and directed towards self-actualization, they will freely collaborate for peace and progress in the society. For the main role of a leader is not to impose his will on people by force, but to enable people find their life’s purpose in the society. Although some force is necessary to contain and redirect already misguided people.
Colonialists formed Nigeria by yoking hundreds of ethnic groups and kingdoms together, without their consent. And “Nigerians have never agreed nor been given the chance to agree what Nigeria is”[4], thus, they continue fighting one another.
At the moment, Nigeria does not need iron-handed leaders, who will enforce silence about perceived injustices. Instead, Nigeria needs emotionally intelligent strategists, who are able to unite Nigerians for a common purpose of harmonious growth. Nigeria does not need a Stannis Baratheon who hangs, burns or tortures those who oppose his kingly ambition or subjective idea of progress. Instead, Nigeria needs a Mance Rayder, who was able to unite hundreds of tribes against a common enemy. In the case of Nigeria, the common enemy is colonial system of misery and unproductivity.
[1] Game of Thrones, Season 5, episode 2
[2] Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 1, (1094a1-19)
[3] Chukwunwike Enekwechi, “Monetization of Nigerian politics” In Restartnaija
[4] cf. Richard Dowden, Africa altered states, ordinary miracles. (New York: Public Affairs, 2010). p.445